With the passage of the Telecommunications Act ("the Act") of 1996, the United States telecommunications industry is in a state of radical change. Among other things, the Act requires that Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (ILEC) the regulated entity that owns and administers an existing access network provide to any requesting telecommunications carrier (hereinafter referred to as "Competing Local Exchange Carriers" (CLEC)) nondiscriminatory access to network elements on an unbundled basis to allow CLECs to combine such network elements in order to provide telecommunications service. As well, ILECs have a duty to provide to CLECs interconnection with their network for the transmission and routing of telephone exchange service and exchange access. The interconnection contemplated by the Act provides nondiscriminatory access or interconnection to such services or information as are necessary to allow the requesting CLEC to implement local dialing parity, including nondiscriminatory access to telephone numbers, operator service, directory assistance, and directory listing, with no unreasonable dialing delays. The provisions of the Act have demonstrated a need for competing exchange carriers to be interconnected so that customers can seamlessly receive calls that originate on another carrier's network and place calls that terminate on another's carrier's network without performing additional activities, such as dialing extra digits, etc. As well, a CLEC can offer multiple type of services, including basic POTS, long distance, ISP (Internet Service Provider), video, etc.
The prior art teaches at least two means of implementing the requirement for unbundled access to ILEC network elements. FIG. 1 shows how a CLEC central office 10 can be provided unbundled access to the subscriber lines, ie. the copper pair of wires 22, 32 leading from the ILEC Central Office (CO) 15 to the customer site. Two configurations of ILEC equipment for servicing customer equipment are shown in FIG. 1, direct copper-wire pair, and remote terminal (e.g. subscriber loop carrier).
With respect to the direct copper-wire pair configuration of ILEC equipment, a plurality of copper pairs 22 are shown being terminated at a Main Distribution Frame (MDF) 26 located at the ILEC central office 15. Though in this case local access is provided generally by a pair of twisted copper wires, many other local access facilities are available for different bandwidths, such as wireless, fibre optics, coax cable, etc. The ILEC central office 15 is connected to the Public Subscriber Telephone Network (PSTN) (not shown).
Each of these copper pairs 22 connects a different Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) connector 20 to the ILEC central office 15, for eventual connection to the Public Subscriber Telephone Network (PSTN). CPE devices 21 can be POTS, data terminal, fax, ISDN terminal, etc. Though only one CPE connector 20 is shown, there are CPE connectors terminating on each copper pair 22. A plurality of CPE devices 21 can be connected to the CPE connector in the subscriber's premises, all sharing a common copper pair.
The MDF 26 is connected to a line interface module 28 located within the ILEC voice switch 29. A CLEC that wishes to have unbundled access to the subscriber line 22 must physically connect that subscriber line 22 to its own access device (in this case a line interface module 33), typically located within the physical limits of the ILEC central office 15. This access device is connected to the CLEC service node (for example, a voice switch) 48. However, the ILEC central office 15 has a limited amount of space to accommodate CLEC access devices. As the number of CLECs (each of whom will be deploying their own access devices) increases, the ILEC would suffer physical congestion at its CO 15, the MDF 26 would have to be expanded significantly, both of which could also give rise to administrative difficulties and costs. For traffic that is not to be rerouted to the CLEC central office 10, there is provided a connection 9 within the service node (voice switch) 29 in the ILEC central office 15.
With respect to the remote access configuration of ILEC equipment, a plurality of copper pairs 32 are shown being terminated at a remote Distribution Frame (DF) 36 located at the remote site 16. Each of these copper pairs 32 connects a different CPE connectors 30 and CPE devices 31 to the remote site 16, for eventual connection to the ILEC central office 15, and to the Public Subscriber Telephone Network (PSTN). The remote DF 36 is connected to a line interface module 38 which connects to the ILEC service node (voice switch) 29 via a remote line interface termination module 19. A CLEC who wishes to have unbundled access to the CPE connector 30 must physically connect the copper pair 32 to its own access device (in this case a line interface module 33), typically co-located with the remote line interface termination module 19. This access device is connected to the CLEC service node (voice switch) 48. The remote line interface termination module 19 is often located on the curb side and co-location can be extremely difficult to implement.
It is generally a cumbersome and costly exercise for a CLEC to deploy numerous access devices to reach its customers, who may be scattered over a wide area. The above method of implementing unbundled access gives rise to significant cost and deployment difficulties for both CLECs and ILECs.
A second method of providing unbundled access to network services is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,610,910, issued Mar. 11, 1997 (Focsaneanu) (hereinafter referred to as the '910 Patent). The '910 Patent discloses a method of interfacing Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) connectors and communications networks (such as PSTN, data networks, wireless networks, satellite networks, CATV, ATM networks) through local access. Data or voice messages destined to, or originating with CPEs can be routed through a variety of communications networks, any of which can be provided by an ILEC or CLEC. Unbundled access to network services is provided without the need for physical unbundling of copper wire pairs.
FIG. 2 shows the configuration of equipment that makes up the system disclosed in the '910 patent in which a plurality of CPEs can access a plurality of different service providers offering different services, e.g. PSTN 212, 216 and data switched network 214. PSTN 212 may be the transport network of one service provider, whereas data network 214 and PSTN 216 may constitute the transport network of one or more different service providers. Though there is shown one service provider 200, there are in reality many service providers including PSTN providers, data switched network providers, data network access service providers, etc. CPEs are able to seamlessly access various services provided by the service provider 200 through subscriber lines 210, CPE connectors 202, 204, 206 and an access module 208.
In FIG. 2, three groups of different CPES, e.g. a POTS, data terminal, fax, ISDN terminal etc. are connected to three different CPE connectors 202, 204, 206 with differing capabilities. Each CPE connector operates with the access module 208 through its local access. The access module 208 contains a plurality of line interfaces, each interface looking after each local access. The access module 208 connects service providers who may have their own networks or may utilize any of a plurality of transport networks 212, 214 and 216 for services requested by CPEs. In FIG. 2, three transport networks 212, 214, 216 are shown for illustration only. The access module is capable of routing messages from CPEs to a greater number of transport networks (ILECs, CLECS, or any combination thereof) than the number shown in FIG. 2. Apart from the hardware present in the access module 208, there is no specialized equipment that needs to be present in the ILEC central office to provide various service providers unbundled access to the CPEs.
The '910 Patent also discloses a method for interfacing the CPEs to the multiple service providers offering multiple services. The method includes a step of the access module 208 extracting information content from traffic to determine requested services of said traffic. The method further includes steps of determining appropriate routing for the traffic to/from a plurality of service providers.
The inventive features of the '910 Patent constitute a real advantage over the implementation of unbundled access described in connection with FIG. 1, in that not only may users have direct access to multiple CLECs, but they may choose different CLECs to carry different kinds of traffic at the same time (ie. POTS, fax, modem, etc.).